The Daily Mail paid £130,000 for serialisation rights to former Labour spin doctor Damian McBride’s memoirs, according to reports this weekend.

The Guardian claimed that the Mail outbid six Fleet Street rivals for the rights to McBride’s book, Power Trip, which details his time as Gordon Brown’s press adviser.

McBride has revealed how he used leaks to the media and “fabricated” stories to help Brown both before and after the former Chancellor became Prime Minister in 2007.